MATT SORUM BLAMES SCOTT WEILAND FOR LIBERTAD‘S SH*TTY SALES

If Velvet Revolver’s second album, Libertad, had a bed, it shat all over it. The sales would have been considered top-notch for your average metal band, but for mega super duper rockstars likes Guns Without Rose, it was bad enough for their major label to promptly drop them.

There’s a few reasons this might have occurred. Personally, I think that VR’s debut, Contraband, was good but not great, and I think once the curiosity factor (with regards to a supergroup) had passed, the band was kind of doomed. Being a major success means doing crossover business (e.g., attracting people beyond the hardcore fanbase that would’ve bought the album even if it was by Slash’s Snakepit 3), and I know a lot of people who bought Contraband, went “meh,” and then never bothered to check out Libertad.

But even if we assume that Contraband really was Appetite‘s second coming, the band released a shit first single that impressed absolutely no one. And I seem to be the only person in the world who actually thought that Libertad was superior to Contraband. So it’s possible that being creatively lackluster is why the album undersold.

Keeping all of this in mind, here’s Matt Sorum basically saying that Libertad sucked, and that it’s all Scott Weiland’s fault:

“The second album, I think, we fell prey to more of what Scott wanted to do and we wanted to straight-up rock and roll… When we went to write the second album, it seemed to take a different road, which I always wanted to make a harder record, but I think we went a little lighter and the fans didn’t really care for [it] that much.”

I’m of several minds about this statement. On the one hand, I appreciate Weiland’s talent but I hate him as a person, and so I take pleasure from Sorum talkin’ smack on his addict ass. On the other hand, like I said, I actually liked Libertad more than Contraband, so if this is true, I guess I owe Weiland a drink (or a needle). And on the other other hand, if we, once again, assume that what Sorum says is true, then EVERYONE IN VELVET REVOLVER NEEDS TO LEARN TO STAND UP TO THEIR LEAD SINGER. Because to hear Slash tell it, Use Your Illusion is all Axl’s fault. How many times are these dudes just gonna roll over and do what their front man tells them?

Sorum seems optimistic that there will be another Velvet Revolver album, this one with a new singer, natch. I don’t see that happening until Slash’s solo album flops (if it does flop), so, for now, I hope everyone is enjoying that Duff McKagan’s Loaded album.

-AR